Stocks Profile

It’s reasonable to be a little worried about companies tied to this year’s back-to-school sales season, given the weak economy and consumers’ unwillingness to crack open their pocketbooks.

But we’re seeing some early signs of hope Thursday. As Dow Jones Newswires reporter Karen Talley points out, some retailers’ August sales are beating expectations. For several apparel retailers, in particular, same-store sales for the month are defying predictions. Even warehouse club Costco has turned in impressive numbers, while Hot Topic, Wet Seal and Zumiez are also defying predictions. Among the

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It’s hard to believe that Whole Foods Market (NASDAQ:WFMI) was trading in the $50 range just one year ago. Today, the stock is struggling to stay above $10 a share. Of course these days, few stocks are immune from the global economic implosion we’re dealing with now. But Whole Foods has become that one company that I can’t help but to defend. You see, when Whole Foods first went public, it was a punching bag for every armchair analyst and media blowhard that took some kind of sick pleasure in the fact that in the first nine months of its IPO, the stock had dipped more than 30 percent.

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IMDB.com, also known as Internet Movie Database, publishes STARmeter ratings of anyone who has ever had anything to do with show business. The STARmeter shows what people are interested in, based on the actual behavior of millions of IMDb users, showing if there is a high level of public awareness and/or interest in the person. Here is a list of several noted traders, investors, and other well-known individuals in the financial field, along with their STARrating change from last week. Full post…

Research In Motion Limited (RIM) is a designer, manufacturer and marketer of wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. Through the development of integrated hardware, software and services that support multiple wireless network standards, RIM provides platforms and solutions for seamless access to time-sensitive information, including e-mail, phone, short message service (SMS), Internet and intranet-based applications.

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